Apparatus for making filament from viscid or viscous substance.



H M. SPECHT.

M vlscm os vlscous suBsrANcE. APPLICATION FILED IAN-12.19%.V

Patented July 22, 1919.

ATTORNEY.

APPARATUS FOR MAKING FILAMENT FRU HARRY MORTIMER SPECHT, F NEW YORK, N. Y.

APPARATUS FOR MAKINGFILAMENT FROM VISCID OR'VISCOUS SUBSTANCE.

Specification of Letters Patent.

Patented July 22, 1919.

Applicaticm led January 12, 1918. Serial No. 211,559.

To all whom it may concern.'

Be it known that l, HARRY MORTIMER SPEGHT, a citizen of the United States of America, and resident of New York, in the county of New York, in the State of New York, have invented new and useful Improvements in Apparatus for Making Filaest ment from Viscid or Viscous Substance, of which the following, taken in connection with the accompanying drawings, is a full, clear, and exact description.

This invention relates to certain improvements in apparatus for making filament from viscid or viscous substance, such as cellulose, or any other fluent or semi-fluent which is susceptible of being reduced to a fibrous or ciliary state by forcing it under pressurethrough one or more capillary pores and is particularly adapted for forming t e 'filamentous fiber from which the threads of artificial silk are made.

In the manufacture of artificial filament or liber of this character, it is highly important that the capillary pore or pores, and particularly the delivery ends thereof, be kept free from accretionsof the same substance or foreign matter in order to preserve the sheen or luster and texture of the filamentous fiber, and one of the primary objects of my present invention is to provide what may be termed a mechanical spinneret which will automatically reduce to a mini-- mum the liability of such accretions, or if they should tend to accumulate may be readily dislodged by the finger or other wiping instrument without retarding the progress of the work or displacing any of the mechanism of the apparatus.

Another 'object is to assemble a multiplicity of these spinnerets (according to the number of filaments required for the thread) lin such manner that the individual fibers may be automatically collected into a single strand for further treatment in their preparation for the manufacture into a fabric.

A further object is to construct each spinneret and its support in such manner that when assembled they will enectively' resist the pressure incidental to forcing th'e viscous f substance therethrough, and at the same time permit any one of the spinnerets to be' removed and replaced inl case it should becomebroken or otherwise impaired.

Other objects and uses of the apparatus will be brought out in the following description.

In the drawingsi Figure l is an end view ofone form of apparatus for simultaneously producing a multiplicity of individual filaments used in making a single thread or strand.

Fig. 2 is a longitudinal sectional view of the same device taken on line 2-2, Fig. l.

Fig. 3 is an end view of a modified apparatus fos.- producing a multiplicity of individual fibers in and around a common axis.

Fig. 4 is a longitudinal sectional view of the modified device taken on line 4 4, Fig. 3.

Fig. 5 is a perspective view of one of the detached capillary tubes or spinnerets.

The apparatus shown in Figs. 1 and 2i screw cap's or nuts on the outer endsv of the nipples so that the holders with the capillary tubes or spinnerets therein may be removed or replaced when desired by simply' removing the nuts.

The nipples -3- are preferably of the same size and form and are detachably secured to one side of the distributing head -4- for removability and replacement when desired or necessary and are disposed side by side in parallelism and in the' same 'straight line lengthwise of the axis of the head -lso that when the-holders -2- with the capillary tubes -1- therein are n assembled, the delivery ends of the capillary tubes or spinne-relis will also lie in thesame straight line and in approximately the same p plane at right angles to the axes of the nipples -3. y i

y The distributing head -4- is 4provided with acentral lengthwise bow or passage -4- communicating with the passages through the several branches -3-, the opposite'ends of the passage -4f being may be removed at anyrtimeto permit 'the CIK interior of the distributing head to be thoroughly cleansed when necessary.

In like manner, access may be had to the interior of the several passages -3- for cleansing purposes by simply removing the screw caps -6 and holders --2- with lthe spinnerets therein.

In Figs. 3 and 4, a plurality of, in this instance seven, of these capillary tubes or spinnerets are shown as mounted in a single holder '-2- in and around a common axis, said holder' being mounted upon the open end of a circular distributing headrzor nipple and held in place by a screw cap -6-, said head being also connected to a supply pipe -5- leading to the interior thereof for directing the viscous substance through the spinnerets.

The capillary tubes or spinnerets are all alike, each one consisting of a slightly tapered main body snugly, b-ut removably, fitted in a correspondingly tapered opening in its holder -2- or -2- and having its delivery end still further, but more abruptly, tapered to an approximate point or diameter of the capillary passage, as -1-, which is of the same diameter from end to end 0f the tube and therefore cylindrical, the opposite end of the tube being enlarged by an annular flange -1- which is seated in a corresponding socket in the inner face of the holder to engage the end wall thereof, and thereby prevent outward displacement in the direction of projection of the viscous substance through the tube, but permitting it to be drawn endwise from said holder for replacement when impaired or for any other purpose.

The tapered points of the delivery ends of the capillary tubes or spinnerets when adjusted for use project beyond the adjacent end faces of their respective holders and are, therefore, free from contact with external objects which together with the taper and extremely small area of the delivery point from which the viscous fiber is projected reduces .to a minimum the liability of accumulations or accretions of the same material or other foreign matter around and uponl said point, thereby preserving the sheen or luster on the surface of the filament as produced by its passage through the-` capillary pore of the tube.

It is, of course, obvious that the number of spinnerets employed may vary at will according to the number of individual fibers required for a strand or thread, and that their relative arrangement may be varied without departing from the spirit of the invention, the main requirement being that theindividual fibers be projected in the same or approximately the same direction so that they may be readily gathered together for head, as -lor -l-, and thence through.

the several capillary tubes so as to emerge from the points of said tubes in the form of filaments which, during the progress of emergence, may beetreated in any suitable .manner, not shown or contemplated herein,

for imparting t'o the fiber the necessary pliable tenacity for its further use.

In case there should be any tendency of the material or foreign matter to accumulate around and upon the .points of the capillary tubes, it may be readily removed by wiping contact of the finger therein or by any other instrument.

It will be noted that the identity of form and size of the spinnerets enables them to be readily interchanged from one support to the other, and also reduces the cost of manufacture and maintenance of the apparatus as a whole. i

Another advantage is that owing to the smallness ofthe spinnerets, a multiplicity of them may be arranged in or upon the same support in relatively small compact space with their conical ends in substantially the same transverse plane always accessible for cleaning the capillary bores terminating in the apexes of their respective cones, thereby not only reducing accumulations of the same or foreign matter thereon as the filaments exude from the tubes, but also reducing the liability of air pockets being formed at the exit which might materially interfere with the perfect formation of'said filaments.

lVhat I claim is: i l

l. In a device of the character described, a holder having a tapered opening therethrough in combination with a spinneret having a tapered body fitted in said opening and an enlarged head seated against the inner face of the holder.

2. In a device of the character described, the combination of a tubular distributing head having a series of radial branches in one and the same straight line, each branch having a separate cap screwed thereon, separate holders clamped between the caps and their respective branches and mechanicalv `spinnerets mounted in said holders.

In witness whereof I have hereunto set my o 

